Dear Linux Kernel Developers:

     This is the first time I have submitted a patch.  I've tried to
follow the guidelines in the MAINTAINERS file, and in the
Documentation/SubmittingPatches file.  Nevertheless, I may have
messed something up.  If so, please let me know.

     Currently, the ac97 codec access logic in the
drivers/sound/ac97_codec.c logic does not use the AC97_MICBOOST bit.
Consequently, when writing to or reading from the SOUND_MIXER_MIC
channel, there are only 32 distinct values that can be used.
There is alot of overlap between dB values available with the
MICBOOST bit turned on, and those available with it turned off.
Nevertheless, I found that by turning the MICBOOST bit on and off
at appropriate times, the total dB range available is increased,
and this may be of some value to some applications.  In any case,
its generally considered to be "good form" to make as many of the
device's features as possible available to the programmer.  This
change is made with that intent in mind.  A patch file is attached.
Code changes are in the ac97_read_mixer routine, and the ac97_write_mixer
routine, in the code which handles the SOUND_MIXER_MIC channel.

I originally made this change to the ac97_codec.c source file for the
2.4.2 kernel, and tested it, but retained it just for my own use.  I've
now made the same changes to the ac97_codec.c file for the Linux 2.4.23
kernel, and am sending it to you, but at this time I do not easily have a
way to test them out. Please let me know if you run into any problems.

The attached patch file was generated by:

diff -u ac97_codec.c linux-2.4.23/drivers/sound/ac97_codec.c
>ac97_codec_patch

(the above is supposed to be one line, but pine broke it
 into two lines)

Any questions, comments, feedback, etc:  dennisn@pe.net
Thanks alot.

Dennis Newbold

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